More on Radio, Contact Info, and, A Bit On Books

That Doggone Radio Program....Again


The station and its website (http://www.GoingBeyondRadio.com) are back and we'll be back on-air on the first Wednesday in December (the 4th) with the guest we were supposed to to have on, during our most recently scheduled program, Larry Hancock.

Producer Chuck was unavailable for a couple of weeks, but he's back now and arrangements have been made to make sure the station doesn't go South if he goes on vacation, becomes ill, etc.

When we come back, Larry will join us for the full hour. We could do a show on this coming Wednesday, but since it's the night before Thanksgiving in the U.S. we'd likely only have our listeners who are in other countries. So, it's 12/4.

Also on the following Wednesday, we'll have a long-time friend of mine, Steve Lyttleton, as our guest. Steve and I will talk about civility and our differing political views, though I suspect we'll agree on enough things to surprise both of us.

We'll then be dark again on 12/18 and 12/25. The 18th is because of my book club meeting and the following week is for some holiday or other. On January 1, 2014, I'm planning on doing a show alone - and not just because everyone else will be recovering from a hangover. The plan is to talk about the need for people to start businesses and avoid being "wage slaves."

In connection with that, I'm a major believer in business and capitalism and after some major effort, I'm making a living (sort of) while not being employed by anyone. That said, when the sign in the men's room says that employees have to wash their hands before returning to work, I wash my hands anyway.

Reaching Us

Now there are a couple of ways to contact us. The big question: why would you want to reach us? Actually, I can think of a couple of reasons.If you've read any of my books or listened to the radio program, you might want to tell me what an idiot I am, or you may wish to express an opinion that's different from mine on a given subject. Or maybe you want to suggest a guest. If you know an author that's self-published a book and it's not about religion, you can let me know how to reach her/him. Or, perhaps you know someone who was involved in early television. We'd probably love to talk to that person.

As is true of most of you, there are two ways to make contact: phone and e-mail. As to the latter, the e-mail address is: tjbRadio@gmail.com

You can now call and leave a message, as well. The number is: 206-339-5905. Please keep your message short, and if you'd like to be on the air to express your opinion, please leave a phone number where you can be reached on a Wednesday evening between 9 and 10 PM Eastern time. If you're not reachable then, but still want your call on, leave your name, number, and when you can be reached. We may call and record your conversation (after you give permission) for later broadcast.

Trivia Questions

You didn't think we'd forget trivia did you? The answers are at the end of this posting, so you don't have to cover them with your hand.

1. What office did Richard Nixon run for between his defeat for President in 1960, and his victorious run for the same office in 1968, and who was the opposing candidate?

2. Ronald Reagan won the presidency in 1980, of course, but he sought the GOP nomination in 1976, unsuccessfully, losing to Gerald Ford. Reagan took the unusual step of naming the man who would be his VP candidate if he won the Republican nomination (as a means of assuring some voters that his conservatism wasn't to be feared). Who was that Republican senator who would've been Reagan's running mate?

3. Who was FDR's vice-president following the 1941 inauguration for his third term?

Books

We'll do a mini-review of a couple of books in a moment, but first, let's talk about my books. If you'd like to take a look at the books I've written, go to Amazon, by clicking the banner at the top of this page, and look up my name "Bushman" without quotes.

If you prefer, you can look up any of the individual books, through the links below.

Mobile Millionaire: http://www.amazon.com/The-Mobile-Millionaire-ebook/dp/B003Y3BQCG/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1335109195&sr=8-4

Amusing Sex: http://www.amazon.com/Amusing-Sex-Funny-ebook/dp/B007UJ665C/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1335109195&sr=8-3

Bobby's Been Shot!: http://www.amazon.com/Bobbys-Been-Shot-ebook/dp/B008V5NIGE/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1344916520&sr=1-2

Acne Cure: http://www.amazon.com/The-Cure-For-Acne-ebook/dp/B007QI4YLK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335109195&sr=8-1

Reviews

I've recently finished Downsize This by Michael Moore and Lee Child's The Persuader.

Some of Downsize This is dated, which is understandable since it came out over 10 years ago. But a good deal of it is still relevant. A lot of middle-of-the-road commentators tend to be dismissive of Michael Moore as some kind of radical nut job. Conservatives do this too, but a lot of them said the same thing about Mit Romney and John McCain.

Moore is a really intelligent, and very funny man. He sometimes goes a little overboard in some of his ideas and with regard to his antagonism towards corporations, but he's absolutely on target about some of the nonsense our laws allow.

If you can get a copy of the book (and a used copy or a library wouldn't be a bad idea), it's worth reading and has a lot of laughs.

The Persuader is - of course - a Jack Reacher novel. By now, you've heard everyone and his mother complain about the casting of Tom Cruise in the Jack Reacher film that came out earlier in the year. This is one of those rare cases, of course, where everyone and his mother are right.

But the books are great entertainment even if the protagonist, an American former military man occasionally uses a British expression (the author's from the UK). I've never heard one of my countryman refer to a K-Turn the way Child (and Reacher) uses that expression, but Reacher does. I highly suspect the meaning is the same as a U-Turn, but maybe I'm wrong. But the start of this paragraph tells the story.

The Reacher books are compelling and when they're arching towards the climax of the plot, they're page-turners and the covers have glue (you can't put the books down). In this one, Reacher's put into the position of going to work for a gun runner in order to kill a villain he thought he'd killed 10 years earlier. The title has several meanings, but one of them refers to the large pistols that Reacher uses at the beginning of the story's unfolding.

I've never read a Reacher book I wouldn't recommend, and this one's not an exception even though it didn't have enough sex.

Trivia Answers

1. Governor of California and he ran against the father of the current California Governor. That current Governor is called Jerry Brown, but he's really Edmund G. Brown Jr. His father, Edmund Sr. was known as Pat Brown. He beat Tricky Dick, which was not a disease.

2. Pennsylvania's Richard Schweiker, and like most vice-presidential nominees, he was never heard from again.

3. Don't feel bad if you didn't know this. Almost nobody gets it right. It was Henry Wallace. Wallace had been in Roosevelt's cabinet. When FDR decided to run for an unprecedented and unrepeated third term, his then-VP wanted no part of another 4 years in that position. Roosevelt went with Wallace. Henry Wallace was substantially to the left of most Democrats at the time and was replaced in 1944 by Truman. When Truman ran in his own right in 1948, Wallace ran against him as head of the Progressive Party.

Ciao For Now

That's it for this edition. Thanks for joining us and we'll see  you on the radio.

What Happened To That Radio Show?

Radio

Today's November 18, 2013. Hardly momentous by most standards, of course, but I'm writing that to place this post within a time frame.

Last Wednesday, we were supposed to go live on our radio program aired on GoingBeyondRadio.com. Instead, when we tried to go on, what happened was nothing. It was really too bad, because our guest, Larry Hancock (who you've heard before if you've been a long-time listener) was all ready.

Larry is an author who's written about the JFK and MLK assassinations along with the secret wars of the CIA and he's a great guest. We and the audience always have a great time. He's very bright and the fact that he's also a really nice human comes through during our conversations.

In any event, when I tried to go the website of Going Beyond Radio, we found that the website couldn't be loaded (and I probably should've been). After a few days of this, and my e-mail not generating a response from our inimitable leader and producer, Chuck Manning, I'd assumed that my recent order of business cards had killed the station, just as sure as a car wash generates a rainstorm.

It appears that the truth is somewhat less melodramatic. I spoke to the station's other principal today, who said that Chuck had to be away and that the server went down, and no one else was around to bring it back up.

Therefore, we should be back up, shortly on Chuck's return.

That said, I was planning on not doing a show this coming Wednesday since it's my once a month Wednesday off, to attend a club meeting and I was also going to be dark (not just from the AZ sun) the following week because it's the night before Thanksgiving.

So, if all goes according to plan, we'll return to air on the first Wednesday in December and Larry Hancock is scheduled to join us then.

The above portion of this post will also appear on our other blog - JeffOnRadio.blogspot.com

Books

This site has "books" in the title, so we should probably talk about them, right?

I should probably refer to my mini-reviews as "used book reviews" since I don't really review newly published books as many reviewers do. I read books that were published earlier, that I'm just getting around to reading.

Before that review section, however, I want to invite you to go to Amazon.com (we have a banner at the top) whenever you're thinking about buying anything that they might possibly have. If you go through our banner, while not costing you anything extra, you'll be supporting this blog because they give us a small percentage of the money you spend there, when you go through our site's banner.

And while you're there, please do a search for Jeff Bushman (who?) and you'll find the books that we have on Amazon's site. Oddly, our books have been doing rather well and if you're one of the people who bought one or more of them, thank you.

Back to other people's books now.

Confessions of an Ex-Secret Service Agent by George Rush is an interesting read in the sense that it talks about the life of the ex-agent inside and outside of the Service, both during and after his time with them.

That said, the time spent on discussing his life outside the Service, comes at the cost of not providing more insight into the work and peculiarities of that organization. I would've liked to have seen more of that and a bit less about him spending his time in discos.

It's still worth a read, but it would've been better - in my opinion - if the concentration were different.

***

As readers of this blog know (and I'm speaking to both of you), I've become a big fan of Harlan Coben. That "fandom" was re-justified by two books of his that I've just read.

Play Dead, in the edition I bought, contains an author's note, just inside the front cover. In it, he urges readers who've never read any of his other books, to not read this one first. He says it was one of his early ones and he wishes he could re-write it with what he knows now.

His concern is unjustified. The book involves a basketball player and his model-turned-business phenom wife who are crazy about each other. They go on their honeymoon to Australia. She has a business meeting and he leaves her a note about going swimming. She later finds out he's drowned. After that, things get spooky and peculiar. I had part of the mystery figured out pretty early, but I never did get the whole thing, until the author revealed it.

It's a hell of a read and I recommend it.

***

The only reservation I have about recommending Coben's other recently-read (by me) book is that it's become dated. It's not giving away too much to say that Miracle Cure involves AIDS, but it was written before all of the anti-viral drugs were created to treat the disease.

For those who don't remember that period, AIDS was a death sentence instead of a chronic, mostly-treatable ailment.

So, reading the book will require you to suspend your knowledge of current treatments, but if you can suspend disbelief, suspending knowledge shouldn't be a problem. And if you can't suspend disbelief, you probably shouldn't be reading fiction.

Miracle Cure is very well-written and sports a variety of interesting characters. While it's not a great measure of whether a mystery is good or bad, this one isn't easy to figure out until about the last third of the book and has some interesting twists. You could do a lot worse than spending your time with this one.

TTFN

At this point, we'll leave the scene with a thanks for joining us and next time, we'll include some trivia. And, at some point in the near future, I'll see you on the radio.

Major Big Deal and Some Trivia

Radio

Hello. This Wednesday will be November 13. That's nine days prior to the 50th anniversary of President Jack Kennedy's assassination. This is the major big deal referred to in our title.

If you lived through it, you'll never forget that day. If you didn't you have nothing (so far) to compare it with. September 11, 2001 was a shock, a disaster, and a tragedy. But it was very different from living in a country where we were accustomed to things going along normally and well.

That said, on Wednesday, we have as a guest on our radio program, Larry Hancock. If you've heard Larry on our show or elsewhere, before, you know what a great guy he is and what a fascinating guest. We'll discuss his latest book, as well as the one he wrote specifically about the president's murder, Someone Would Have Talked.

At the risk of being overly self-promoting, if you want to look at Larry's books, go to the Amazon banner at the top of this page and click there. Should you buy any of Larry's books (or anything else for that matter), Amazon will throw a few coins our way, without costing you anything.

But however you look at Larry's books, you should do so.

Larry will be with us for the full hour, and if you have questions of him, you'll be able to call in. The program starts at 9:00 PM, Eastern Time, and is well worth your time. If you should miss it (some people, I suppose, may have to work during that time), you can catch the podcast, beginning the next day. Tune in at http://GoingBeyondRadio.com/JeffBushman (if you're listening life, you don't need the slash or my name).

Larry will be attending a conference next week in Dallas relating to the assassination, but we've got him first.

Trivia Questions

As you might have guessed, this is the trivia.

Following are some questions and below that will be the answers. What a novel arrangement.

1. Who was President Nixon's Secretary of  Defense during his first administration?

2. One of the Secretaries in the president's cabinet is the Secretary of Health and Human Services. What did that Department used to be called?

3. What was the one cabinet department created in the administration of Lyndon Johnson?

4. What was the cabinet department created in the administration of George W. Bush?

5. Who was the youngest President of the U.S.?

The answers appear below our next section, so you don't have to be tempted to cheat by having the answers right below the questions.

Speaking of Books

If you'd be so kind, take a look at the books I've written (BTW, we're working on another one - regarding health and weight loss). Go to Amazon.com (need I re-mention the banner above?) and do a search on my name and you'll see three books (and a "short"). If you're not interested in the books, that's fine, but if you are, they're available for y our computer or e-reader.

Trivia Answers

OK, here we go.

1. Melvin Laird

2. Health Education and Welfare

3. The Department of Housing and Urban Development

4. Homeland Security. Frankly the name of this Department has always bothered me. Use of the word "Homeland" sounds somewhat like it came out of Germany in World War Two. I'm not saying George W. Bush is a Nazi or even a fascist, necessarily. I'm just saying....

5.TR. If you said JFK, that's understandable, but the was the youngest person elected president, at age 43. When Teddy Roosevelt took office at 42, it was because he ascended to that position on McKinley's assassination.

Hasta

Thanks for checking in. We'll see you on the radio.

There are definitely options

Mortgages

No, this isn't an ad for mortgage companies, or cheap home loans. When the economic collapse hit in 2007 and 2008, one of the biggest problems is that many homeowners found that the value of their homes was less than they owed on their mortgages.

Many walked, many didn't.

But many folks are still "under water." The banks refused to reduce the amounts due on their mortgages and as a result more people walked away from their homes than would have otherwise. These were called "strategic defaults."

What the banks didn't do, didn't have to be the end of the story.

The city of Richmond, California has decided to take action. They have exercised the right of eminent domain to take possession of all the mortgages on homes in their city. I'll explain that in a moment, but in brief it means the city government took the mortgages from the banks but the city is required to pay the banks fair market value.

What's fair market value? The value of the homes. The city will then be the lender and homeowners will make their payments to the city.

Eminent domain has existed since before the U.S. was a country, but it was formalized in our Constitution's 5th Amendment (which is also the one dealing with the right to not incriminate yourself in testimony). The government can take property, but it's obligated to give fair value for that property. The taking has to be for a government purpose (rather than revenge or some other petty motive).

The city has already won the first court battle against the banks, who sued after the taking of the mortgages, and the case is now under appeal.

But it's interesting at the very least.

The "taking" is clearly a government purpose. The city has an interest in keeping homeowners in their homes to avoid urban blight (see pictures of Detroit, for example). The payment of fair value is a bit tougher to figure out, but one way of assessing value is what the bank would get for the property if the mortgage was defaulted on (the homeowner stopped paying) and the bank was forced to sell the property. Clearly it couldn't get more than the value of the home, so the argument is that the value of the home is the fair value of the mortgage.

The arguments against that last position,  go two ways. On the one hand if many of the mortgages suffered a default, the value of the homes could be significantly less than the current market value, and even if the defaulted mortgages only numbered a few, when someone's going to default on their mortgage loan, they generally don't maintain the property as well as someone who's going to stay, so again, the value could be less.

On the other hand, it could be greater. If the homeowner stays, the value of the mortgage is the loan plus interest for the length of the loan. Clearly the banks' position is that most people will stay in their homes and pay the total amount of the mortgage.

The real value, in my opinion, of what the city's done, is that if the banks lose all their appeals, at the very least, they should be ready to come to the bargaining table so they can keep their mortgages and collect interest, which they'd only be able to do by reducing the mortgage to current value, or perhaps a bit more.

Stay tuned on this one.

Trivia Questions

The answers will appear below, so you don't have to look at the answers until you're ready.

1. Who wrote Ulysses Grant's autobiography?

2. Speaking of writers, who was the first writer to submit a novel to his publisher after typing it (on a typewriter, as contrasted with sending it in, in handwriting)?

3. Spiro Agnew, of course, resigned in disgrace. What vice president was charged with murder?

4. Richard Nixon ran for president the first time in 1960 and lost. Who was Nixon's running mate?

5. Members of the U.S. Senate are elected directly, by the people of their state, but it wasn't always like that. Before a constitutional amendment mandating direct election, how were U.S. senators chosen?

The Big Show

This Wednesday evening (program starts 9:00 PM Eastern Time), we'll be talking with author JT Sather. He recently wrote a very funny piece about almost being charged with kidnapping. While I know it's hard to believe that could be funny, it is, so please give a listen at http://GoingBeyondRadio.com

If you're reading this after Wednesday (11/6/13), you can still hear the show as it was recorded at the same address, with the addition of a slash and my name: http://GoingBeyondRadio.com/JeffBushman

You can also hear our earlier shows at the same location. The following week we interview Larry Hancock, the author of "Someone Would Have Talked," among other works. That book was about the JFK killing and Larry's joining us in observance of the 50th anniversary of that assassination. The following week, he heads to Dallas. If you listen to the show, you can also call in and ask Larry your questions.

Books

I want first, to recommend a very good book to you. Miracle Cure was written by Harlan Coben, before we had the drugs we have today, so it's a bit dated, but it's a really good mystery novel with a lot of twists. I think you'll enjoy it. Obviously, because of its age, you can find it at a library, a used book store, or on Amazon.com. It's worth the read.

...And Speaking of Books

Let me tell you about mine and where to find them. But first, let me talk to you about Amazon.com. If you want to order anything from Amazon, please go to the top of our page and click anywhere on the Amazon banner. It doesn't matter where, because if you go to Amazon from our page, even if you click on books and buy cosmetics, or vice versa, we get some credit for it. It won't cost you anything, and we'll get a couple of kopeks.

But, about my books -


Mobile Millionaire is a guide book to mobile home investment. Amusing Sex, Funny Sex is a compilation of some of the columns I've written for Scottsdale Health Magazine, and Bobby's Been Shot is a mystery novel.

Mobile Millionaire: http://www.amazon.com/The-Mobile-Millionaire-ebook/dp/B003Y3BQCG/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1335109195&sr=8-4

Amusing Sex: http://www.amazon.com/Amusing-Sex-Funny-ebook/dp/B007UJ665C/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1335109195&sr=8-3

Bobby's Been Shot!: http://www.amazon.com/Bobbys-Been-Shot-ebook/dp/B008V5NIGE/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1344916520&sr=1-2

Acne Cure: http://www.amazon.com/The-Cure-For-Acne-ebook/dp/B007QI4YLK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335109195&sr=8-1


Trivia Answers

1. The obvious answer is wrong, though he is buried in Grant's Tomb. Though he told his story to the author, the actual writer was Mark Twain.

2. If you didn't cheat, you may have guessed. It's the same answer - Mark Twain, but the next several answers won't be Mark Twain.

3. Aaron Burr. He was Jefferson's veep and he killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel, after dueling had already become illegal (and very messy). Also, as far as we know, Burr had nothing in common with Mark Twain.

4. Henry Cabot Lodge. Lodge was from Massachusetts as was the man who defeated Nixon, JFK. Kennedy had beaten Lodge for the Senate seat that ultimately put Kennedy in position to run for president.

5. By an election by the state legislatures. The change was thought to make members of the Senate more responsive to the desires of their constituents.

Final Words

If you're still reading this, thanks very much and please listen to the radio program. We're aiming towards doing some additional programs and we'll announce that here and at our other blog, http://JeffOnRadio.blogspot.com but in the meantime, we'll see you on the radio.